Sports Medicine Physical Of The Future Could Help Athletes 'ESCAPE' Sudden Cardiac Death
Thursday, January 30, 2014 - 09:30
in Health & Medicine
BOSTON (01/23/14)—A young athlete in seemingly excellent health dies suddenly from a previously undetected cardiovascular condition such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in nearly every U.S. state annually. Although these conditions can be detected using electrocardiography (ECG) during a screening exam, the American Heart Association recommends against routine use of ECG, because it has a high false-positive rate. Limiting screening to a history and physical, however, usually fails to identify at-risk athletes. "The sports medicine physical lacks an effective way of ferretting out these heart problems," says Gianmichel Corrado, MD, from Boston Children's Hospital Division of Sports Medicine. Until now. read more